Neutralizing monoclonal antibody combo treats mild, moderate COVID-19

(HealthDay)—For ambulatory patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk for progression to severe disease, bamlanivimab plus etesevimab infusion leads to a lower incidence of COVID-19-related hospitalization and death, according to a study published online July 14 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Michael Dougan, M.D., Ph.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues randomly assigned a cohort of ambulatory patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 at high risk for progression to severe disease to receive a single intravenous infusion of a neutralizing monoclonal-antibody combination agent (bamlanivimab and etesevimab) or placebo (518 and 517 patients, respectively) within three days after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 diagnosis.

The researchers found that by day 29, 2.1 and 7.0 percent of patients in the bamlanivimab-etesevimab and placebo groups, respectively, had a COVID-19-related hospitalization or death from any cause (absolute risk difference, −4.8 percent; relative risk difference, 70 percent). There were no deaths reported in the bamlanivimab-etesevimab group, while 10 deaths occurred in the placebo group, nine of which were designated as COVID-19-related. A greater reduction from baseline was seen in the log viral load at day 7 among patients receiving bamlanivimab plus etesevimab versus placebo (difference from placebo in change from baseline, −1.20).

“While society moves toward ending the COVID-19 pandemic with widespread vaccination campaigns and efforts to achieve herd immunity, antibody therapy provides a potential treatment option to reduce the incidence of illness and death among vulnerable patients,” the authors write.

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